B.L.A.C.K

A movie that will open your eyes.

Not for many years has there been such a movie in the Hindi (Indian) Film Industry. A movie which makes you think of only superlatives when you describe it & silence you when you recollect scenes from the movie.

The story is of an Anglo-Indian girl called Michelle McNally (who is both blind & deaf) and her mentor (who is a recovering alcoholic). The story takes you through Michelle's early life, her inability to know what is happening & her teacher's role in shaping her life & her future.

A truely inspirational movie, if there ever has been.

Technically, it's a masterpiece. There is no part of the movie where you feel that the movie could have done without this. Rani Mukherjee (playing Michelle) and Amitabh Bachchan (playing her mentor) have perhaps given the finest performances of their careers. Especially Rani, who has put in a stellar performance!

If there is one movie you should not miss, this is one!

Make sure you carry a few Kleenex with you... It's a tear jerker. Now go watch it!

Kids...they can really surprise you!

A background on this topic. I have a four & half year old daughter. Needless to say, she's the apple of my eye. My baby! Ever since she's born, everything I have done is for her to have a better life.

I usually have a lot of music playing in my house & she's usually the only one in my house who is there listening to it with me & dancing along. How she picks up music is a mystery to me, fact remaining that she does it with alarming precision.

The other day (while I was playing some music...not surprising), she walked up to me & said that she wanted to make a CD of here favourite songs (She calls it her "Favourite song CD" and not by any other name). So I gladly obliged & sat down to compile a list. What eventually came out took my breath away & left me stunned (and proud).

Here's the list (in that order...she wouldn't take it in any other order):

Home by now / No matter what..........Meatloaf
Jealous Guy.......................................John Lennon
Bulla Ki Jana......................................Rabbi Shergill
White Flag..........................................Dido
Don't Tell Me.....................................Avril Lavigne
Midnight blue....................................Jeff Lynne
Learning to fly...................................Pink Floyd
Eleanor Rigby....................................The Beatles
Walk Of Life.......................................Dire Straits
Hopelessly devoted to you....................Olivia Newton John
I can't make you love me......................Bonnie Raitt
Summer Holiday.................................Cliff Richards
Holding Out for A Hero.......................Frou Frou (from the Shrek 2 OST )
Jab Kabhi...........................................Jhankaar Beats (Hindi movie OST)
Woman...............................................John Lennon
Coming back to life..............................Pink Floyd
New York Minute................................The Eagles
7 seconds.............................................Yousson D'our & Neneh Cherry
It's probably me..................................Sting with Eric Clapton


PHEW!!!! I was amazed at the choice of music of this 4 & 1/2 year old kid & her ability to know all the lyrics by heart.

What really amazed me was not the fact that she knew all the lyrics, but that she APPRECIATED them & was curious as to what the song means (eg. in Eleanor Rigby, "....darning his socks in the night (What's darning?)" & "...wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave (What's a grave & why is he wiping the dirt?)" WOW.

So I enthusiastically signed her up for piano classes. In this part of the world, that's a bit too early to do that. She surprised me (pleasantly) again. She sat, completely attentive, for her first class & memorised the positions of the keys in a jiffy. She went one step further. After we came back from the class, she quietly went to her room, found my old tiny keyboard & started playing & memorising the keys all over again.

Man (sorry ladies), she keeps me on my toes all the time.

I was fiddling around with my golf clubs the other day & she asks me how to swing a golf club. So I show her. And she repeats it almost exactly. Flawlessly! Sigh!

I have to tell you this (and I'm sure a lot of you agree with me...well, most of you who have kids), it's the most satisfying experience in the world to watch your kid do what he/she does & the apparent ease with which they do it.

By this ramble, you must have guessed that I am completely head-over-heels when it comes to my baby. And I think she's going to make me one proud father!

Sigh!

Travelling...

I know, I know... It's been more than a month since I posted something.

(Already I am beginning to think that there are many people who actually read this drivel & are enthusiastically waiting for the next edition to be dished out... Perpetual optimism, some people say. Some say "Lunacy". You decide)

Fact of the matter is that I have been travelling quite a bit. Before you start fantasizing about some great holiday destination, I should quickly say that this is mostly to places of work.

Where customers are always pissed off (even when they are happy), where travel times are high & the hotel rooms are not what they should be. Having said that, the only thing that keeps me going in these places are the great friends who remind me that there are better things to look forward to at the end of the day.

But even with all these friends around, you sometimes get lonely. And sometimes it gets so bad that you think you can be creative & actually write a poem. I know what you're going to say, but hang on. My story gets better. I ACTUALLY wrote a poem, which I am now going to thrust on you! Here it goes (keep the boos for later)

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Back again into the same old room
The same drab walls, same bed too
It's not the same, but it looks the same anyways
I am alone again, sitting by myself as always

Work makes me travel to many different places
Meeting many people & seeing so many new faces
Leaving my family & people I love to come work here
I sit for lunch alone while my mind sitting elsewhere

The sound of the alarm wakes me from a restless sleep
I could not sleep at all, the thoughts run too deep
Another shower, another lousy breakfast, another busy day
It looks like that's how a travelling life is anyway

Twelve hours of works & it's still not done
This is serious stuff & it's not at all fun
A few more days of this leaves you more than just tired
I think of my family & a long holiday to get my mood fired

Bad food, bad bed, that's life when you travel
The bed is so bad, I prefer sleeping on a towel
The food makes me want to scream & never eat again
But the hunger is there, the body is in pain

The silence is deafening, the walls close in
I'm fighting a lone battle I cannot win
The TV doesn't help, same old crappy shows
Nothing replaces family, nothing even comes close

I ask for some alcohol to relax myself
The bartender takes a bottle from the shelf
He pours me a drink and asks "How was your day"
I am dead tired, so what am I to say

I really miss my wife, I really miss my daughter
If I keep this travel up, I will never be a good father
A good husband, a good son, a good brother, a good friend
That's all I've wanted to be when my life comes to an end

A lot of people think that travel is all fun and games
I would really like to meet them & know all their names
Cause travel for work is not at all fun
It's like standing naked in the scorching sun

My stay has come to an end & I check-out from my room
A feeling of elation has replaced the one of gloom
I'm on the way home & going to meet my family
And spend the next few days complete & happily

The buzzer rings again, another flight to catch
Another place, another deal, something else to snatch
Back on the road again, a few more days of doom
Back again into the same old hotel room...

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Well, there you go. Drivel dished out. Next installment, coming soon :-)